


Keep Safe When Every Heart Is Losing A War

by HyperKey



Series: Chronological Order [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Food, Grief, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-15 23:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16073705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperKey/pseuds/HyperKey
Summary: Dealing with grief all by yourself isn't the best of coping mechanisms.





	Keep Safe When Every Heart Is Losing A War

His life had been constant in only one thing. Everyone he cared about would leave him or die at some point.  He had sworn never to care about anyone again. But it was impossible not to get attached to the partner that had been with him for as long as he was on the force.

Tony was a few years older, had a few years more under his belt. He never ranked up, refused to. Needed the time for wife and kids.  He had certainly been able to. Certainly could’ve been a better Detective than he would ever be.

And now he was dead.

Shot by a rogue android. They now had names. Deviants. That how humans had named rogue androids.

It didn’t even begin to put meaning into the hatred Gavin had for the infernal things. And he used to be interested in them, used to help his brother in his research. He knew how to put them together and how to take them apart.

But he didn’t know how they deviated, or why.

The ride home had been silent. There was no one in the car. No one to talk to, except maybe the GPS that was outdated by several years. If he ever left Michigan he might update it, but that was a rare occasion.

At home there would only be a cat and a Roomba. An empty fridge and a cold bed. He wondered how long it had been since he had last invited someone over. Possibly too long. And then he did a mistake.

The phone on the other end of the line was already ringing, before Gavin realized what he was doing. He needed to talk to someone. No amount of cussing and snapping could take the guilt off of him. Guilt for something he wasn’t at fault for.

Not directly.

And yet he blamed himself. Why did he get shot? Why was he on sick leave? Why did Tony go without backup?

“What a nice surprise.” The voice on the other end teased, and Gavin almost flung the phone across the car. He couldn’t as he needed his hand to open the door.

Phone wedged between shoulder and ear he made his way over to the front door of the apartment complex. It was quite big, high rise buildings, not exactly the most modern ones. It wasn’t much he could buy with a police salary.

But it was enough.

“Turn on the news.” Gavin growled at his brother.

“No, I have nothing to do with that rogue android.”

A faint, emotionless smile crept onto Gavin’s face. At least his brother saw them like that too. The smile disappeared as fast as it had come when the stab of grief and guilt assaulted his chest. He was no stranger to it.

Four years ago, he had lost someone very important to him.

“This is a bad time to tell you about the newest Detective Model, right?”

“Fuck you, Elijah.” There was no amusement in his voice, only plain hatred for the infernal machines. He wished they had never existed.

“Usually you don’t care about this.” Elijah mused aloud.

Gavin gripped the phone once he had closed the door to his apartment, made the clear screen creak in protest at his grip. “Usually my partner doesn’t get shot dead by a fucking android!” he couldn’t keep the anger down any longer.

Didn’t care who heard. He needed to scream at someone, _something,_ wanted to kill the fucking android who ruined his evening, possibly his whole week, the whole rest auf August and the rest of the fucking year and half of the next.

But it had already been destroyed.

“Gavin?” Elijah muttered then, “Do you need anything?”

“I need a fucking way to kill every fucking android in this shitty piss-fuck of a world!” He screamed, voice fraying at the edges. He didn’t care if he screamed himself hoarse. He needed this outlet now, lest he’d let it out on Hank again and get another page to his disciplinary record.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.” His half brother sighed. “I’m sorry about this…”

“Sorry doesn’t bring him back! He had a wife! And two kids!” Gavin sunk against the wall in the hallway, lowered himself to the ground and stayed there, not bothering to get up again.

Tears burned in his eyes, but he wouldn’t cry. He hadn’t cried in years. He wouldn’t do it now.

“Are you home?”

“Of course I am you fucking bastard!”

“Stay there.”

“I have nowhere to go!” Gavin screamed at the phone, flung it against the wall when the screen went dark. “You fucking bastard!” he shouted at no one in particular, maybe at his brother. Most likely at the android.

He gripped into the fabric of his jeans, lowered his head onto his knees. He was shaking, anger and grief mixing into each other.

The front door opened after a while, a key clinking. Two dark sneakers entered his field of vision, dark pants, a white plastic bag filled with take out, a Frankenstein hoodie. Glasses. Manbun. Gavin would have laughed if that had been any other situation but he couldn’t get a single word out.

Elijah didn’t say anything either as he closed the door, set the bag to the ground and crouched next to his brother. “Thought you might be hungry.”

“No.” Gavin replied silently.

“Well, then I will eat the spring rolls and sushi all by myself.”

“Is that really the food you’d eat when someone close to you died?”

Elijah shrugged. “It’s the cheap sushi. Not the fancy stuff. Fancy police quality probably.”

This drew a small laugh over Gavin’s lips. “You can’t make this go away with food.”

“Of course not, Gavin. But I can make it better by filling your fridge and keeping tabs on your eating habits.” Elijah sighed and lifted a second plastic bag that Gavin hadn’t seen before.

“What do my eating habits have to do with grief?”

“More than you might think.”

Gavin shook his head and slowly climbed back to his feet. He felt light headed and realized that, even thought they saw each other twice a year at most by now, Elijah knew him better than he had thought.

“And you can drop the façade.” The older of the two muttered. “Cry if you need to. Helps, really.”

He shook his head again, picked up the bags and headed to the kitchen. “Thanks for not bringing Chloe along.”

“I was worried you might smash her to pieces. Seeing your phone, I was probably right.”

“…thanks.” Gavin sighed, put the bag of takeout on the table and sat down.

He watched as his brother made quick work of setting the table with two plates, chopsticks and the plastic boxes. He had even bought a small bottle of Sake.

Tony and him had had sushi together once. It had only been one fucking time, Gavin had even forgotten about it until now. But when the scent assaulted him the tears came. He couldn’t stop them.

And he knew it was okay, that it was needed. That there would be many more to come. This wasn’t the first time, and not the last. But maybe it was the first time that Elijah actually got down from his high horse to comfort him, because this was the first time he had finally accepted that he could call him when he needed something.

“Does that mean I can have your share?” Elijah teased after a few minutes.

“Fuck you, no.”

 


End file.
